Same-sex spouses allowed to receive veterans’ benefits

President Barack Obama has directed his administration to take steps allowing the same-sex spouses of military veterans to have access to federal benefits, Attorney General Eric Holder said Wednesday in a letter to Congress.

The move is the administration’s latest effort to extend benefits to married same-sex couples in light of the Supreme Court’s June ruling striking down a key piece of the Defense of Marriage Act, and extends the court’s reasoning to Title 38 of the U.S. Code, which governs the granting of benefits by the Veterans Administration and the Defense Department.

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“Although the Supreme Court did not directly address the constitutionality of the Title 38 provisions in Windsor, the reasoning of the opinion strongly supports the conclusion that those provisions are unconstitutional under the Fifth Amendment,” Holder wrote in his letter to lawmakers.

Title 38 had prevented the executive branch from providing benefits to the same-sex spouses of veterans and some active-duty members of the military.

The American Military Partner Association celebrated the move. “No longer will Tracy Johnson, the surviving spouse of Staff Sergeant Donna Johnson who was killed in Afghanistan, be treated as if she doesn’t matter by the Department of Veterans Affairs,” Stephen Peters, the group’s president, said in a statement. “All of our veteran military families will finally be recognized and supported for their service to our nation.”

The move follows the Defense Department’s mid-August announcement that it would begin granting benefits to same-sex spouses of members of the military and other employees by early September.

It also comes after House Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group recently decided to stop defending pending Title 38 cases and after a federal district court held that the Title 38 provisions are unconstitutional on equal protection grounds.